Concentrate on the simple stuff and do it right each and every time you sell. When you're not selling practise and develop your skills, treat selling as skill that needs to be practised and practised all the time before the big games, each sale is a big game!

Although obvious and simple, the above statement is the basic foundation of being an exceptional sales person. When you first encounter my top rules for exceptional sales you can be forgiven for having the initial thoughts of 'this is obvious, I knew this already…' Believe me there's a significant difference between knowing and doing. In general the major difference between the exceptional sales person and the rest is not what they know but what they do. We all know it but few do it.

The few who do it are very happy that the rest don't because in figures it means the exceptional get the lion's share of the business and rewards, while in general, the mediocre get less than half and the rest, well they just become sales nomads traveling from job to job blaming the management, the product, a personality clash or something else along those lines.

• Find a positive attitude and then keep it going all the time.
• We all need to believe in something, at the very least make your something you.
• Preparation and planning is the antidote to poor performance.
• Keep on learning.
• Think people, think needs, think solutions not products.
• Have the right motivations.
• Think long-term.
• Be on the right bus.
• Have fun.
• Speak wisely about the competition.
• Know your KPIs and use them.
• Join the 'AA' – Attitude and Action!